What's Cooking - Dolmas (Stuffed Grape Leaves)

Love stuffed grape leaves, but afraid they'll be too much work? They are way easier that I imagined, and I am a lazy cook. Give them a try, at least once, and I think you'll be back for more.

You can make dolmas with canned leaves, but picking and blanching leaves is pretty easy too. Spring is the best time to harvest grape leaves. They are more tender and less "blighted". I've been waiting for them to get just the right size, and now is the time. The following recipe is for 60, an ambitious amount, but they can be frozen and reheated. I picked 36 leaves, a good amount for us. I didn't want to take leaves from my neighbors side.

To prepare the leaves yourself, pick healthy leaves in the spring. They should be about the size of your outspread hand. If your hands are small, like mine, maybe a little bigger. I had my water boiling and ready to go, the fresher, the better.

Wash the leaves and blanch them for about 3 seconds in boiling salted water. I did them in batches of three and kept them flat. Placing three in a deep pan and turning the three over to finish the boil. I had a large bowl of cold water ready to dunk the leaves to stop the cooking.

After all were blanched, I placed them in a plastic zip bag with a little lemon juice. You can easily freeze them like this if you like. They can also be rolled in batches and put up in jars, but you have to be careful to add enough lemon juice to prevent botulism.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice
1 large onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill or 2 T dry dill weed
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
2 quarts chicken broth (water is OK if you want vegan)
3/4 cup fresh (bottled OK too) lemon juice, divided
60 grape leaves, drained and rinsed
hot water as needed
1 cup olive oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, saute the rice, onion, dill,
and mint for about 5 minutes, or until onion is soft. Pour in 1 quart of
broth, or water. Reduce heat to low and simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes, or
until rice is almost cooked. Stir in 1/2 of lemon juice and remove from
heat.
2. Take one leaf, shiny side down, and place 1 teaspoon of the rice
mixture at the bottom (stem) end of the leaf. Fold both sides of the leaf
towards the center, roll up from the broad bottom to the top, and place
into a 4-quart pot. Repeat with all leaves, leaving no gaps as leaves are
placed in pot (to prevent from opening while cooking). Sprinkle with
remaining lemon juice and with olive oil.
3. Pour chicken broth, or water over all to cover grape leaves. Cover pot and
simmer for about 1 hour (do not boil, because this will make the stuffing
burst out of the leaves). Remove from heat, remove cover and let cool
for 1/2 hour. Transfer to serving dish and serve. I prefer mine chilled.

What's Cooking? - Buffalo Chicken Dip

OK, I have to admit this is not an old family recipe. I found this one on a Franks Red Hot sauce website. I use a lot of hot sauce, but Fran's has been my favorite. It seems to pass through hands a lot and gets renamed, but the taste is always the same. Maybe its' the way they age the peppers. I don't know. Anyhow, I found their recipe, but I changed it up a bit to suit my taste. The boys love this. It's one of those treats that will light up their eyes If make it without warning.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

1 package cream cheese softened
1/2 cup blue cheese dressing
1/4 cup red hot sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 cooked chicken breasts diced

Mix together Cream Cheese, dressing and hot sauce until smooth. Stir in chicken and mozzarella. Pour into an oven proof dish and heat for 20 minutes in a 350 deg F oven. If I'm in a hurry, I will microwave this until hot and bubbly. This in tasty, but not too hot for the boys. If you really love hot, you can add more hot sauce to taste.

What's Cooking? - Sauerkraut Balls and Polish Hors D'oeuvres

This recipe is a little late, because the Sauerkraut Balls are traditionally New Years Eve treats. My mom used to make them every year. I decided to make some this year so I looked on the internet. So many different ways to make. Usually with ground ham or sausage and of course sauerkraut. Mostly with just an egg binder and rolled in breadcrumb or cracker crumbs. Because there was a vast variety of recipes (none were the same) I decided to dig out my moms cookbook. She make it herself, photocopying or typing recipes and putting them in plastic sleeves.

Mom's recipe was pretty insane too. Ground, pork, ham and corned beef. I didn't have all that so I went back to the internet. I found that this was a popular treat in the Cleveland area (although German in origin) and that a closed restaurant that we used to go to in Vermillion made the best ever. I hunted down their recipe and it was the same as my moms. I have no idea how she got that recipe, because she had it long before the rise of the internet. Back in the day, people would get recipes from someone who worked in a restaurant and pass it on by hand. I'm sure that's how she got it. That's enough backstory, now on to the Recipe.

Sauerkraut Balls

1/2 lb boneless ham                            1 t dry mustard
1/2 lb lean pork                                  1 t salt
1/2 lb corned beef                              2 C milk
1 medium onion                                  2 lb sauerkraut, cooked and drained and ground
1 t minced parsley                              flour      
3T shortening                                     2 eggs slightly beaten
2 C flour                                            dry bread crumbs

Put meats and onion through meat grinder (I used baby bullet) add parsley. Blend well and saute in shortening until browned. Add flour, mustard, salt and milk. Blend. Cook stirring constantly until thick. Add sauerkraut. Return to heat and cook stirring constantly until very thick. Cool.

Form into walnut sized balls. Roll in flour, dip in egg and roll in bread crumbs. Deep fry until golden brown.

I only had ham, and made 1/3 the recipe. There was a large mounded platter full, so this is a huge recipe.

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Bonus recipe is what we call Polish Hors D'oeuvres. Made them without telling the boys and they were so thrilled when they saw the platter. My Aunt, who married a Pole, gave us this recipe. Easy and yummy

Polish Hors D'oeuvres


Sliced hard salami (I prefer thin sliced)
Sweet Pickles
Cream Cheese


Amounts depend in how many you are making.


Cut sweet pickles into long spears (quarter lengthwise) lay a spear of pickle near one end of a slice if salami. Cut a piece of cream cheese about the same size and lay next to pickle. Roll pickle and cheese in salami and secure with a toothpick. Voila!